Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Maybe... According to our timeline (which is nothing close to scientific or garenteed) our child just may be born in July. Five to six months before our expected December referral. We will know nothing of them or about them until we recieve our referral but they will have arrived long before that so pray for the new little one this July. John is specifically betting on a July birthday for our new son because it makes sence. Johns birhday is in March, Ethan in April, Allie in May, Kara in June. So that leaves July!

The monthly updates from Holt have told us to expect a boy. (most likely) While we are open to either there are some families that can choose a girl. They either have two boys at home already, or are Korean born Americans. There are many families in the process at this point that fit this profile.Another reason is that domestic adoption is picking up in South Korea. Yet they are mainly adopting healthy girls. Girls when they marry in South Korea are added to the family registry of the male so it does not matter what their family history is. Yet males have no family registry to belong to because of being born out of wedlock or in other circumstances that do not allow them to be added to a family registry because of older South Korean rules. South Korea is slowly changing this but it takes time. So boys are still not considered as often for adopton in South Korea at this point. China seems to have more girls because there is a rule they can only have one child and they want it to be a boy so that they can take care of the family when they are older. Yet Korea does not have this rule. Because of these two circumstances, South Korea's domestic adoption of healthy girls increasing, and the list of families that are waiting for girls specifically growing, there are less and less healthy girl babies going through the adoption system. Since the line and wait for those requesting girl babies is longer and growing and the adoption of girls picking up in South Korea, they have told families that are waiting for either boy or girl, that they better expect a boy referral. Does this mean we are having a boy? Maybe, most likely. We are setting our minds that way, but it still does not rule out a girl because it all depends on the circumstances. What we listed we were open to on the medical checklist, and if a child matches that. Yet the chances for a boy are much much higher than the chances for a girl.So think blue!

Many are asking what is going on right now in the process. So it is time for an update. Even Grandmas and Grandpa are confussed as to timelines, dates and ages, so you are not alone if you are unsure what is going on. Well we are waiting. That is about it just waiting. We have not gotten notifications that our home study is in Korea so that means it is still sitting in the U.S. waiting for the agency Holt Korea to call for more home studies.At this point we are still optimistic that we will receive our referral around the Christmas/ New Year Holidays. They will be most likely; around 5 or 6 months at the time of referral and it will take 3 to 6 months (average now being 4 mo.) for all the paperwork and travel approvals to be complete so they can travel home. So that makes them anywhere from 9-12 months when they come home. Maybe not the baby that some of you have been picturing. We very well could have a busy walker by the time they come home. So doing some estimation math lets say we get our referral at the end of December than wait four months or so for all the paperwork and such to be done we can roughly estimate our child will be home around May. Maybe for Grandma H. and Allie's B-day on the 4th of May. Hey it is a double special day already! This is just a guess and can be thrown way off by many things. But it gives you an idea of the possible timeline.